# Your Usual Training Volume

Canonical HTML: https://effortsignal.com/learn/usual-volume/

Last content update: 2026-09-10

The weekly usual range compares a completed week with eight immediately preceding complete weeks.

## Inputs, window and formula

Choose Duration, TRIMP or PSS and the supported sport filter. Duration sums elapsed activity seconds. Each activity belongs to its local start date, using the account timezone and configured week start. For the eight consecutive complete weeks before the evaluated week, let x1…x8 be the selected metric totals.

```text
mean = sum(x1…x8) / 8
SD = sqrt(sum((xi − mean)²) / 8)
lower = max(0, mean − SD)
upper = mean + SD
difference = evaluated total − mean
percent difference = 100 × difference / mean
```

SD uses the population divisor 8, not the sample divisor 7. If mean is zero, percent difference is unavailable while a true zero total remains a value. Totals inside either boundary are within the range.

## Verified example

Weekly durations of 4, 5, 6, 5, 4, 5, 6 and 5 hours give mean 5 hours and SD 0.707107 hours. The usual range is 4.292893–5.707107 hours. A completed 6-hour week is above it, by 1 hour or 20%. The same unfinished 6-hour current week is not given a completed-period classification.

## Complete means complete for this metric

The eight weeks must be consecutive: an incomplete week cannot be skipped and replaced with an older convenient one. Missing metric coverage or insufficient materialized history makes the baseline unavailable. The current week, a week ending today, or a range-truncated week is partial. An imported summary may support duration while lacking TRIMP or PSS.

This usual-range method is weekly only. Monthly totals can be displayed, but the weekly classification is not silently relabeled as a monthly baseline. Changing timezone, week start, sport selection or corrected source data can change the grouping. Open [Training Volume](/features/training-volume/) for the view. This descriptive range is an EffortSignal rule, not a prescribed safe training band.

## Sources and implementation scope

[Bourdon and colleagues (2017), monitoring athlete training loads](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28463642/) provides background, not a specification of every EffortSignal rule. The formulas, windows, quality gates and examples above describe EffortSignal 0.1.13, checked September 10, 2026. Product-specific thresholds and rounding should not be attributed to the background source.